Cahors "Château"
![](https://www.bowlerwine.com/sites/default/files/styles/50_pct/public/wine/field_content_image/Chateau_Cuvee_label_2012.jpg?itok=4ze-sJO_)
100% Malbec (aka Auxerrois locally). The fruit for the "Château" bottling comes from estate plots totaling 5 hectares with vines averaging 40 years old. All of Combel's vines are limestone-rich soils typical of the Causse Calcaire plateau on which they lie--but the vines in this cuvée are on rockier, redder, more clay-forward soils. The farming is certified-organic and in conversion to biodynamics. The yield is kept to 35-40 hl/ha. The bunches are hand-harvested and mainly destemmed but with up to 20% directly pressed as whole clusters. The juice ferments at cool temperatures with indigenous yeasts in cement tanks with around 20 days of maceration. The wine is aged in a combination of used barrique, demi-muid and 50-hectoliter cask for a year. It is bottled without filtration and with minimal sulfur.